The report which Public Auditor Michael Pai, transmitted to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, and Speaker Eli D. Cabrera, R-Saipan, said OPA investigated most of the 130 complaints it received from the public involving fraud, waste and abuse in the CNMI government.
OPA received them from January to December 2010, through its website hotline, letters or internal referrals.
Of the 130 complaints, the report said 22 were considered “high priority,” 25 “medium priority” and 33, “low priority.”
Fifty complaints were designated as “inappropriate for investigation due to either insufficient information or because the complaint was outside OPA’s mandate.
The report said that in March 2010 the AG’s office withdrew its staff from the OPA/AGO Task Force on white collar crime and government corruption due to the restructuring of investigative personnel.
This action, the OPA report said, “led to the decommissioning of the task force.”
In 2010, OPA said its own investigation unit probed cases involving violations of procurement regulations, fraud, misuse of government funds and property, embezzlement, theft and violations of the Ethics Act.
The AG’s office, the report said, filed separate criminal cases against five government employees in the wake of OPA’s investigations that uncovered falsified time sheets, theft of public funds and Public School System laptops sold to pawnshops.
